Many airlines and shipping companies say they’ll hit net zero carbon emissions by 2050, but right now they have no clear path toward hitting that target. From a scientific perspective, ridding those industries of fossil fuels is possible; economically, it’s not. Or at least not yet, claims a young startup. Oxylus Energy thinks it has […]
Sage Geosystems wants to solve the data center energy crisis by storing pressurized water deep underground
Cindy Taff was standing out in the flat expanse of Starr County, Texas, in early 2022 when she felt it. “It was literally vibrating the ground,” she told TechCrunch. “That was an ‘ah-ha’ moment for me.” Her startup, Sage Geosystems, was testing equipment used to harvest heat from deep in the earth. The team had […]
Why Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy and other investors are scouring universities for founders
The humble garage is so steeped in Silicon Valley lore it’s almost cliché. Yet that’s exactly how Caleb Boyd and Kevin Bush started Molten Industries: in the garage of the Stanford professor’s on-campus home, where Kevin rented an apartment. It had everything they needed: space and, most importantly, power. The two wanted to break methane’s […]
Energy tech startup Greenely grabs €8M to reach more households and support Europe’s energy transition
The energy transition is a marathon, not a sprint. But opportunities for acceleration are growing. Swedish startup Greenely* has just spotted one. It’s closing an €8 million Series A funding round to expand its energy management platform into neighbouring Nordic countries (so around $ 8.7M at current exchange rates). The energy tech startup is serving […]
Google’s environmental report pointedly avoids AI’s actual energy cost
Google has issued its 2024 Environmental Report, a more than 80-page document describing all of the massive company’s efforts to apply tech to environmental issues and to mitigate its own contributions. But it totally dodges the question of how much energy is AI is using — perhaps because the answer is “way more than we’d […]